Detectives from outside police agencies examine items at the scene in the Anchor Bank parking lot on Sunday.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The 43-year-old Centralia man shot to death by a police officer following a shoplifting incident has been identified as Paul M. Edmundson, an individual who lived at the Pepper Tree Motel and RV Park.
Edmundson died at the scene on Sunday morning, in a bank parking lot just south of the Chevron service station on the corner of South Tower Avenue and East Cherry Street.
Police say he was combative as Officer Ruben Ramirez and his K-9 partner tried to detain him, and he pulled a handgun from his pocket.
Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod reports Edmundson died of massive internal bleeding from a bullet wound to his chest.
It’s the second time this year a Centralia officer has shot and killed someone. In February, an officer fired eight shots at a 48-year-old Westport man staying at the Lakeview Inn after a night time encounter in a nearby residential neighborhood when the man refused to drop a knife.
That use of deadly force was found by the prosecutor to be justified.
The Centralia Police Department this morning revealed Edmundson was wanted in connection with an assault in which he allegedly shoved some type of sharp object though the eyelid of a neighbor during a disagreement on Friday at the Pepper Tree Motel. Responding officers to the 1200 block of Alder Street didn’t know what the object was and still don’t, according to Officer John Panco.
Panco said Edmundson thought his 50-year-old neighbor owed him a favor because he’d bought him some beer a few days earlier, and he wanted him to drive him around town instead of leaving that day.
The victim’s eye was not permanently damaged, according to Panco.
Panco said he didn’t know if Officer Ramirez knew that’s the man he’d come across when responding to the 10 a.m. call on Sunday about a stolen burrito, but just wanted to get the information out there.
“He was the one who took the report of the assault, so whether he recognized him or not, I do not know,” Panco said. “That will come out in the investigation.”
The details of what preceded the Sunday morning shooting in Anchor Bank’s parking lot are limited, as Centralia police arrived as backup after a struggle ensued between Ramirez and Edmundson but officers instead worked to preserve the scene of the shooting and turned the entire case over to a group of detectives from outside police agencies.
Panco said this morning a 44-year-old woman, Michele Milligan, who was present – and said to be screaming at Ramirez as the two men fought – was taken into custody for a warrant.
A gas station clerk from across the street who called 911 said she watched for what seemed like 10 minutes of the officer trying to handcuff the man.
Nicole Escalante described seeing the man on the ground, and repeatedly trying to get up, and Ramirez telling him to stay down and at one point punching him.
Escalante said she stood on the sidewalk in front of her convenience store talking with 911 and saw the man reach for something, and saw Ramirez draw his weapon and fire one shot.
Ramirez, a 15-year veteran of the police department and a member of its SWAT team, was placed on paid leave. Police Chief Bob Berg says the Region Three Critical Incident Investigation Team is expected to complete its work within the next three weeks.
An internal use-of-force review board will convene after that, according to Berg.
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For background, read “Stolen burrito leads to fatal shooting in Centralia” from Sunday June 29, 2014, here
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